Born in Yerevan, Armenia, Davit Karapetyan trained at the Armenian School of Ballet and Schweizerische Ballettberufsschule. After dancing with Zurich Ballet, he joined San Francisco Ballet as a principal dancer in 2005.

Karapetyan has danced such major roles as Albrecht in Tomasson’s Giselle, Nutcracker Prince and King of the Snow in Tomasson’s Nutcracker, Romeo in Tomasson’s Romeo & Juliet, Prince Desiré in Tomasson’s The Sleeping Beauty, Prince Siegfried in Tomasson’s Swan Lake, Basilio in Tomasson/Posskhov’s Don Quixote, Onegin in Cranko’s Onegin, Sea Witch in Neumeier’s The Little Mermaid, and Prince Gillaume in Wheeldon’s Cinderella. He created principal roles in Tomasson’s Caprice, On a Theme of Paganini, and On Common Ground.

Karapetyan has been a guest artist with the Armenian Opera House, The Hamburg Ballet’s Nijinsky Gala, and Japan’s NBA Ballet, among others. In December 2008 he was featured as the Nutcracker Prince in the PBS Great Performances broadcast of Tomasson’s Nutcracker, co-produced by San Francisco Ballet and KQED Public Television San Francisco, in association with Thirteen/WNET New York.

Karapetyan won Best Couple with Vanessa Zahorian in the senior division at the USA International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi, in 2006. He received gold and silver medals at the Armenian Ballet Competition in 1997 and 1998, respectively, and was a prizewinner at the Prix de Lausanne in 1999.